When we think of brand ambassadors we tend to think of rich, successful celebrities getting paid to endorse big name brands. But that’s such a narrow definition – What if you’re a cool skate store, then how about talking to the local skaters, finding the best local one and helping him or her out – ie before they become too big to be interested in you ?

Or how about approaching a local band, and offering to kit them out, or supply their jewellery, in return for them talking about it, blogging about it, you can see where I’m going with this…..

If your business is babies clothes, then how about finding a new mum who’s well connected, loves giving coffee mornings and offering her a few products to “road test” for you – this works for both of you as each of you get some positioning with this model of working, it’s a win win, or as close to it as we can get !

So what qualities does a brand ambassador need to be able to talk about your company and to share their belief and influence others?

The number one ingredient in this cake is passion !

Pure and simple, they need to love your brand, what you aspire to, what you’re trying to create – in short to buy into your vision for the future.

You could be feeling a bit frazzled at the idea of trying to build a circle of brand ambassadors for your business…. But its really not as difficult as you may think

Consider that you’ve already got the basics down, you have the store, product or service, the vision, the USP, and you know where you want to go…

So the next step is sharing this with those around you – you may think that they arlready know all this about you, but I bet you’ll be surprised to find that most don’t. Either you’ve been backward about coming forward, or they haven’t been listening because they either didn’t buy into it, or couldn’t see what’s in it for them ?

So, make sure your employees, friends & family are motivated to help you spread the word, tell them your story, your hopes, your plans and how you’re going to do it….

Remember” the world makes way for the man who knows where he’s going !”

Talk to customers who are thrilled with your service or product, ask for a testimonial, add it to your website and marketing materials and make sure that you spread success stories !

Celebrity brand building through ambassadorship works to build brand loyalty as the celebrity involved has some kudos, or a level of respect and trust that entices consumers to follow his or her choice.

But our world is changing so fast today, that celebrity brand building can include online social media, it could include influential bloggers or Twitterers with large followings, and there’s no reason on earth that you can’t be a successful brand ambassador for your own business.

In fact, its essential !

Tags: brand ambassador

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 at 8:30 am and is filed under brand ambassadors, branding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.